It’s official – Middle Island is now allowed to be called Te Wai Pounamu!

Middle Island (Te Wai-Pounamu) New Zealand : showing principal waterfalls for electric power, and catchment areas of the principal New Zealand rivers. 1904

See also our post Middle Island or New Munster?

Get your votes in by midday Saturday 12 October 2013

Postal voting doesn’t close for the 2013 Christchurch local body elections until election day, but any votes posted from today (Thursday) are unlikely to reach the Electoral Officer in time to be counted by the noon Saturday deadline. If you haven’t posted your vote yet, don’t worry – Christchurch City Council service centres and libraries will accept voting documents until midday Saturday 12 October.

• Library locations and hours
• Service centre locations and hours

You  can enrol to vote in the 2013 elections up until Friday 11 October but  will have to cast a special vote and must contact the Christchurch elections hotline on 0508 440 017. If you did not enrol before 16 August or have not updated your details, you must also cast a special vote.

Special voting facilities are available at the following places:

• Civic Offices, Ground Floor, 53 Hereford Street. Monday–Friday, 8.30am–5pm, Saturday 8.30am–noon
• Shirley Service Centre, 36 Marshland Road. Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm, Saturday 10am–noon
• Akaroa Service Centre, 28 Rue Jolie,  Akaroa Recreation Ground. Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm, Saturday 9am–noon.

More information:

• Council elections
• Elections 2013: Message for last-minute voters
• Elections 2013: Votes need to be in by noon Saturday to count

Bishopdale is back!

I can, I can, I know I can!

Bishopdale, the little library that could, is back.

In the same spirit as The Little Engine That Could: I can, I can , I know I can, Bishopdale did.

If you were about in those life altering months after the 22nd February 2011, you might remember Bishopdale as the glue that held the northern suburbs together. It was the first library to open after the quake and one of only two libraries open in the whole of Christchurch. It was a pulsating hive of activity. Think overjoyed customers, accompanied by  recently unleashed children, attended to by chocolate-biscuit fuelled staff,  knee deep in a gazillion returns and you have just about got the stereophonic measure of it.

And then it all stopped on the 4th November 2011: the premises did not meet the building code.

But now it is back, just down from where it was before, and what a great little space it is. Not just open, but open and welcoming and trialling several new initiatives that will keep the Bishopdale customers ahead of the pack.

Yet when you stand in the new space, you can’t help but think back to the Bishopdale that was: the maze-like arrangement of the non-fiction section – where it really was possible to become quite seriously disoriented, the lone public computer at the back of the library (the choice of those of furtive intent), the lovely little posies of flowers on the issues desk, the staff toilet door that could be locked from the outside – and thereby hangs a tale or two….

Not everything has changed though. There’s still the same lovely library staff, the same excellent service from Christchurch Libraries, the same neat selection of items and the same beautiful art work on the walls.

Bishopdale is back , ready to create new memories. Can’t wait to see you there!